Recovery Mode

It’s been a very long time between posts lately, and we are pleased to be able to say that there is some recovery happening since the labour dispute ended on December 12, 2014. We are trying to rest, regain our health and strength and recover. It has not been easy. For some members, it took more than a month before they could start sleeping again. Many still find themselves checking out their windows to see if the red truck/Rider van is really gone, and that there are no picketers. Others are still suffering from nightmares, and for still others, PTSD symptoms are beginning to appear.

We are starting to recover and will share more about this in future posts.

For now, there is a need for explanations.

As has been posted previously, this blog went quiet out of respect for the negotiating process – a spontaneous act on the part of the administrators, really, as it wasn’t something we ever had to discuss. Then, the content of the blog itself was removed with this post put up to explain.

Regarding the labour dispute between AUPE and SAIL, discussions are under way and things are looking positive.

The blog is coming down as a sign of good faith while these discussions proceed.

We are hopeful that a formal press release will be issued by SAIL and AUPE once the matter is resolved.

Thank you to all who submitted their stories, video, and photographs to the ArtspaceUnder Siege blog.

There was, of course, a lot more to it.

This email from the SAIL board is why the content came down.

Dear Artspaceundersiege administrators:

As you may or may not be aware, we have been discussing a settlement to our labour dispute with AUPE. Although we cannot discuss details we can assure you that it would include AUPE going away and SAIL paying severance to our former employees. It would mean peace in our neighbourhood!

Unfortunately, in the past week, AUPE has told our lawyer that they will not sign the settlement agreement if the blog/youtube/facebook channels are not removed/deleted. If we don’t sign a settlement agreement by December 15, they could be back here, on our street.

So in the spirit of peace for our neighbourhood, we’re asking if you would consider removing/deleting the social media (blog/youtube/facebook) regarding the labour dispute to the best of your ability.

We’ve been told there are numerous administrators and even more contributors to the blog so we’re hoping you can all meet and/or communicate over the weekend and provide a response back to us by 6 pm on Monday, December 8, 2014.

It pains us to make this request as we know we are asking you to give up your highly-valued human right to freedom of expression. It is unfortunate the peace in our neighbourhood will come at such a high cost.

No matter what you decide, we will fully respect and support the decision you make.

In cooperative spirit,

SAIL Board of Directors

That’s right. AUPE’s not-a-lawyer was willing to let the deal fail – even after the striking SAIL staff voted to accept severance – over the blog and YouTube videos, which SAIL has no control over. Yes, they knew SAIL had nothing to do with the blog. They certainly had been told that often enough! They wanted us silenced, or they would reject the deal (which would have meant the striking SAIL staff would not get their severance) and be back to picketing our home.

Which sounds a lot like blackmail, don’t you think?

There were quite a few problems with their demand. The first of which is; the blog/Youtube videos don’t belong to any one person. Even among administrators, the number has changed as people came and went, depending on their circumstances. Current and former administrators would have to be reached, and at least some of the contributors, in a very short time. There was no way to reach all the contributors, as some are them are completely anonymous; not even we administrators know who submitted commentary.

We did the best we could, though. Of those that could be contacted, the response was unanimous. Each and every one of us wanted to give AUPE a great big "F*** You!"

This blog has been the only place Artspace members, friends and family have been able to be safely heard. Most of us aren’t big users of social media, and some of us don’t even have computers. It was only by sharing what was being done to us on this blog that people could give voice to the hostile and damaging environment we found ourselves living in, with the videos as proof, thanks to AUPE’s picketer behaviour, and their targeting of our homes, rather than the place of employment.

To us, it was clearly AUPE’s way of damage control; the exposure of their actions here was giving them a black eye, and they wanted to scrub it and silence us.

So our initial answer was a resounding “no!”

However, we also had to think of our community. It was obvious that SAIL would be punished if we said ‘no’, and we all knew of AUPE’s intention to bankrupt SAIL, even before their negotiator had to admit he’d said so, while under oath at the Labour Board hearing in November. We had to think of everyone living in Artspace, as well as our neighbours on 101A Avenue, who had been terrorised and tormented for 7 months.

AUPE put the SAIL board in a terrible place by saying they wouldn’t sign the agreement until the blog came down. Not only because SAIL has no control over the blog, but because of the obvious attack on our free speech; our right to talk about and show what was being done at our home and to our community.

AUPE put us in a terrible place, as we administrators had to make a decision without any way of consulting everyone who contributed to the blog. We take our fundamental commitment to democracy seriously - we have that human right.  

Plus, none of us were part of the labour dispute.  We just happen to live here, or visit friends and family members who live here.

There was another problem with the request, and it showed just how little AUPE seems to understand the Internet. Even if we were able to somehow remove all our content, there are still ways for people to find things, such as Google Cache and the Wayback Machine. Of course, we have no control over what people have shared on their Facebook pages, or other social media. Sure, the links wouldn’t work anymore, but they would still be there. As some of our members wrote on signs at Artspace; the Internet is forever. We have no control over that.

In the end, out of respect for our friends on the SAIL board, and our community, we decided to bring down the blog and Youtube channel. We knew that, ultimately, AUPE had no legal or moral right to make this request. However, since they were asking us to take down stuff, when we responded to SAIL with our “yes,” we also included a list of AUPE’s online content about SAIL and Artspace, suggesting they take their stuff down, too.

Because we are not privy to the agreement, and the SAIL board is apparently not allowed to tell us what’s in it, all we know is that some of those links we shared were removed as part of the agreement.

Which is why, if you go to the AUPE website and Youtube channels, you will not find anything about the labour dispute with SAIL. Which, in the end, really benefits them, since so much of what they had did a great job of demonstrating our own case against them. Like their hours of “peaceful picket line” video that showed the picketers repeatedly trespassing and the like. Seriously, you’d think that if they were making these videos to refute our own videos, they would not do something so blatantly stupid, like leave the picket line and walk/trespass onto the Artspace parking lot.

Apparently, their not-a-lawyer was quite shocked that we took the stuff down, though they scoured the Internet to find other things for us to take down, like the Pinterest account we’d forgotten about. Then they took their stuff down, and finally, the agreement was signed.

So now you, dear reader, know why the blog posts were removed.

Support

As many of our supporters know (and those who have been reading the blog since before we took down our old posts), Kathleen Smith aka Kikkiplanet was hit with a SLAPP suit from AUPE (along with a non-existent person and an Ontario businessman), claiming defamation, after she used social media to share this blog and our videos of what AUPE was doing to our home.

That suit is still ongoing.

These sorts of legal disputes can take years to resolve, and are very expensive.  For AUPE, this is no big deal.  They've got millions of dollars in union dues to finance their action.

Kikki, on the other hand, is a housewife with a twitter account, who just had to bury her son a short time ago.  She doesn't have a lot of money.  Which is the sort of thing that allows SLAPP suits to work; people just can't afford to defend themselves.

The smart thing for AUPE to do would be to drop this frivolous suit against her.

They haven't.

So one of her supporters has started a gofundme campaign.

Please support Kikki; visit this page and, if you can, contribute.  If you can't contribute, please share the page with as many people as you can.

Thank you.

Condolences

We at Artspace Under Siege, the Artspace community and many more, wish to extend our condolences to Kathleen Smith and her family, on the loss of her son, Mackenzie Pawluk, just days before his 19th birthday.

The loss of one's child is every parents' nightmare.  There are no words deep enough to express our thoughts and feelings for this tragedy.  Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Kathleen, you stood with us during our difficult time.  Now, we stand with you.

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.

123Tagged.com - More Happy New Year 2015 Comments

May 2015 be a year of growth and peace for you all.

Holiday Wishes

Merry Christmas to all, with a special Thank You to all those who supported us over this difficult time.  You are much appreciated!

Media Release: Dispute Resolved

We now have a copy of the media release put out by SAIL.      

-MEDIA RELEASE-

Labour Dispute Resolved Between SAIL Inc. and AUPE

For Immediate Release (Edmonton, Alberta)

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

The labor dispute between the home care company Supports for Artspace Independent Living Inc. (SAIL) and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) is over.  A mutually agreed upon settlement has been reached. 

SAIL Inc. wishes AUPE and its members all the best in their future endeavours.

   

Since 1990 SAIL Inc. has provided a consumer driven, self-directed model of homecare to user members. SAIL is managed by a volunteer Board of Directors.  User-members live in their own apartment or condominium at Artspace Housing Co-op.  Artspace is a vibrant 88 unit Co-op that offers housing to a diverse community of 180 people, including people with disabilities and seniors. Up to 30 Co-op members use the home care services of SAIL. Each user-member of SAIL is responsible for directing the home care staff as to how best to meet their needs. The user-member also has a say as to when their care time is scheduled.  SAIL’s unique model of home care offers maximum independence to the user members.

Media coverage: Edmonton Journal

It took a while, but news of the labour dispute at our home ending has finally been reported.  Here is an article from the Edmonton Journal.

Seven-month labour dispute ends at Edmonton housing co-opBy Keith Gerein, Edmonton Journal December 16, 2014

The story is nice and neutral; a media win, I'd say.  There were a couple of things that should probably have a bit of clarification, or at least a fleshing out.  These are likely due to word count limitations and lack of information than anything else.

A labour dispute at the Artspace Housing Co-operative has ended after more than seven months.

Two hundred and nineteen days, so be exact.

To clarify, yes, the dispute was AT the co-op, but not WITH the co-op.

Alberta Union of Provincial Employees spokesman Tyler Bedford said a settlement was reached between the union and the non-profit group that manages home care services

Company, not group.  SAIL Inc. is a non-profit company, run by a volunteer board, and is a subsidiary of Artspace Housing Co-op Inc.  It's a niggling point, but there is a legal difference.

 for about 30 residents of the apartment co-op.

Apartments and townhouses. The townhouses are across the street from the high rise, and SAIL user members, who are all living independently in their own private homes, might be in either.  There are anywhere from 130-180 people living here.  Like any other residential building (or buildings, in our case), it can change.   At the moment, all units are occupied, so we're at the high end of the scale.  The number of SAIL user members is a very small portion of the total population of the co-op.

Terms of the deal are confidential but the result is the health care aides represented by AUPE will not be returning to work at the co-op at 93rd Street and 101A Avenue. 

Another niggling detail.  The staff did not work at the co-op.  They worked at the SAIL office, which is in unit 103 of the high rise.  From there, they would go to people's homes to provide care.  Those homes happen to also be in Artspace, but they did not work "at" Artspace.  

When you have spent much of your life fighting to be able to live independently, this is a very important detail.  The home care staff went from the employer's office to people's private homes.  

Let's put it this way.  If a person needing home care, provided by AHS, had an apartment in any of the other high rises here in Edmonton, no one would say the home care workers were working "at" the apartment building, but at that person's apartment.   The landlord of the building would not be considered the employer or the place of employment.  The fact that the worker would need to pass through common areas, such as hallways and elevators, or use shared amenities, such as laundry rooms or garbage chutes, does not change that.  

So what this sentence should be saying is that the staff would not be returning to work at SAIL, not "the co-op."

... but the employees were then locked out by their employer, known as Supports for Artspace Independent Living (SAIL).

Known as??

What a strange thing way to put it.  

Picket lines have been present outside the building ever since.

To be fair to AUPE, that's not quite true.  They were here on Remembrance Day, but stopped coming when the hearing with the Labour Board started the next day.  They stayed away until Nov. 23 - day 200 - when they had another party, then picketed for two more days.  Aside from the odd day they didn't show up over the previous 6 months, the last time there was picketing seen at Artspace was Nov. 25.

Also, they would hang out at either the high rise or the townhouses, or at the cul du sac North of the above ground parking, so this is where the writer should have said "the co-op" instead of "the building."  It's unlikely the writer would have known this.

The non-profit group has been using replacement workers to tend to residents’ needs,

Let's try that one again; "The non-profit company ... to tend to user members' needs."  

 

Thanks, Keith Gerein, for doing a rather good job in covering this announcement.  Certainly better than most of the coverage we've had over the past 7 months!